Sahaja

The word Sahaja has multiple meanings, even though it means “easy” or “straight” (sojā), as contrasted with “crooked” (bakra or bāṅkā) in popular Bengali. The word originates in Sanskrit, the classical language of the Hindus, standing for spontaneously or naturally “born together,” or “innate.” The Sahajayāna [Sahaja vehicle or way] sect emerged as an offshoot of Vajrayāna [Adamantine or Thunderbolt] Buddhism in Orissa in the eighth century CE, and its founder was a Buddhist monk named Saraha (also known as Saroruha, Sararuhavajra). Though there are uncertainties of the historical Saraha’s identity, the scholarly consensus has it that he was a central figure among the fabled 84 Mahāsiddhas [Great Adepts] of early Tantric Buddhism in Northeast India during the Pāla period (eighth–ninth centuries). (For Saraha’s biography see Abhayadatta Sri, Buddha’s Lions.) He is said to be a brāhmaṇ of Bengal known as Paṇḍit Rāhulbhadra of Bhāgalpur (capital of Aṅga, presently in the state of Bihar)....